Lucius: Dreams to Verse

A True Solo Master

This is a True Solo deck for Lucius based on my overwhelming success in Hemlock Grove (blind).

Caveats: This was playing with the Boon of Hermes, in truth once hiking boots and backpack are in the deck that boon is overkill. (I firmly believe true solo should be played with a boon so I recommend scenario 1+2 use Hermes, and 3+ use Athena).

Item Breakdowns

• Magnifying Glass could be replaced by Lockpicks, but I prefer the extra action and resources I save.

• Lucky Cigarette Case and Backpack (2) are our only draw, but both are extremely consistent and powerful so we want both in the deck to ensure we draw what we need early. Backpack (0) feels too limited to be worth including.

• Dr. Milan Christopher is...well Dr. Milan Christopher and along with Magnifying Glass gives great odds against 3 Shroud or lower (4 on standard), while also funding our cards. He can be replaced by Whitton Greene but I feel it isn't worth the extra tutor, as we only need ONE copy of dream diary in hand which Backpack should find.

• Ravenous Myconid is handier later when Backstab + Occult Invocation aren't cutting it and we need an enemy gone. This is also why we want Magnifying Glass over Lockpicks, in case we need emergency card fodder.

• Our skills are no brainers; money, extra clue, extra evade. All these skills are just "do what we want to do but better"

• Crack the Case and Kicking the Hornet's Nest give us resources we need for setup, and a clue to boot as we don't mind spawning an enemy.

• Backstab and Occult Invocation are our "kill that man NOW!" buttons, with only the toughest enemies able to live through one.

• Working a Hunch is there purely to give us victory points early so we can eventually tech in Hiking Boots.

Upgrades

I have ordered them in purchase order.

1. Hiking Boots are insane on Lucius as he loves evading, and in true solo we need and love the extra move action. This Turns Lucius ability into Evade -> free clue -> free move, DISGUSTING action compression every turn.

2. Dream Diary - Explore if we aren't using Lockpicks, otherwise Madman.

3. Backpack - This is huge for us as I stacked in a ton of items, and all of them are brokenly powerful for us, so if we miss one in our mulligan we can get it here. It also triggers our free money button for astounding revelations (though we can tech out of one or two of them).

4. Ravenous Myconid

5. Dreams of the Clay is our counter to his low willpower, letting us skip any really nasty will treacheries.

6. Magnifying Glass - for when we have 2xp to spare after Hiking Boots and Dream Diary.

That is your Core EXP dump, a total of 21exp. I recommend Memories of Another Life because it is IMO one of the best cards in the game for a true solo, but dealers choice.

Piloting

It is simple, You want the following cards in your opening hand: EITHER Lucky Cigarette Case OR Backpack, and Hiking Boots OR Dr. Milan Christopher.

The Best item in your opening hand bar none is Dream Diary as it's almost auto-succeeds a test every turn.

I would also try to grab Kicking the Hornet's Nest to jump start our clues/resources but without hiking boots it feels a little spicy.